Typical drawer assemblies generally comprise a drawer with a sliding guide rail system as well as a support member to support the drawer during its sliding movement. Either “full-extension” or “single-extension” type sliding guide rail systems are normally provided for drawers to be either fully or partially slid open or closed. The “full-extension” type guide rail system typically consists of a mounting bracket for fixing the assembly to the article of furniture, a fixed rail mounted on the bracket, a pull out rail attached to the side of the drawer, and preferably an intermediate rail in between the fixed and pull out rails. In the “single-extension” rail system, no intermediate rail is provided and the pull-out rail is directly slidable on a running surface (fixed rail) of the mounting bracket.
Drawers for use with the above drawer assemblies tend to tilt or skew sideways for a variety of reasons among which are excessive/uneven loading and variations in the pre-set measurements of the drawer bottom panel length, the dimension of the article of furniture and/or sliding guide rail system components, due to manufacturing or assembling inaccuracies. Any tilting or skewing of the drawer sideways will affect the smoothness and stability of its sliding movements. As such, it would be desirable for a stabilizer to be provided with drawer assemblies so that the drawer can be slid into and out of an article of furniture smoothly and stably.
An existing drawer assembly having such a stabilizer arrangement was disclosed in Malaysian patent application no. PI 20031897 (published as WO 2004/103119 A1). The existing stabilizer arrangement is provided on the drawer support bracket, at one side of the drawer assembly, and comprises a guide, a lever, a leg and a holder.
The guide comprises a horizontal flange with a pair of legs disposed at each side of the flange. A centrally located protrusion projects downwardly from the horizontal flange. The protrusion is engageable within a slot on the top surface of the support bracket and the legs are insertable into side openings of the support bracket. The protrusion is secured within a recess of the pull-out rail, through the support bracket slot. A serrated portion is provided on the bottom surface of the guide horizontal flange. When the guide is mounted onto the support bracket, the serrated portion of the guide is contactable with a corresponding serrated portion of the top surface of the support bracket.
The lever is an inverted U-shaped bracket having a pair of outwardly stepped planar extensions at a first longitudinal end. The lever is also provided with a centrally located hole as well as a further hole disposed towards the second longitudinal end. The lever is supported on a holder that is fixed onto the top surface of the support bracket. The holder has a vertical flange and a horizontal flange with the vertical flange insertable into the recess of the lever. The vertical flange of the holder is provided with a hole and the lever is pivotally held onto the holder by a screw or rivet through both the holder and central lever holes.
The leg portion of the stabilizer is suitably sized and shaped to fit into the recess of the lever. The leg portion is rotatably mounted onto the lever by way of a fastener through a hole provided at a first end of the leg, that corresponds to the lever hole disposed at the second longitudinal end of the lever. A screw driver slot is provided at a second end of the leg, with that second end sitting on the top surface of the support bracket, when the stabilizer is in an assembled state and in use. The leg portion may be rotated from a release position to a lock position by inserting a screw driver into the slot and rotating it. Rotation of the leg portion to a lock position will cause the second end of the lever, connected to the leg, to be lifted up, thus causing the first end of the lever with extensions to be pressed down onto the guide. The downward pressure from the lever extensions onto the guide coupled with the interaction between the serrated portions of the guide and support bracket will lock the guide thereat. Conversely, rotating the leg in the other direction to a release position will cause the second end of the lever, connected to the leg, to be lowered, lifting the lever extensions from the guide, thus unlocking the guide from the support bracket.
One disadvantage of the prior stabilizer arrangement is the necessity to manually lock the guide in order to secure its position on the support bracket. The first end of the lever, with extensions, will only be urged to press down onto the guide after engagement of the guide protrusion within the pull-out rail recess. There is a clearance between the lever extensions and the guide if the first end of the lever having the extensions is not urged downwards by the rotation of the leg. As such, in the event the user forgets to rotate the leg to the locking position, the extensions of the lever will not be contactable with the guide. No force or pressure will be exerted on the serrated surfaces of the guide or the support bracket and thus, these surfaces would not lock (hold) the guide against lateral movement on the support bracket.
Additionally, the serrated surfaces of the guide and support bracket that enhance locking of the guide onto the support bracket do not allow for minor lateral adjustments of the guide after locking. Such minor adjustments may prove necessary due to inaccuracies in the assembly or manufacturing of the sliding guide rail system components. Also, when side walls of the article of furniture are not parallel to each other, the sliding movement of the pull-out rail will be affected as the guide rail systems are fixed to the furniture walls. Since the sliding movement of the pull-out rail is guided by the guide, the drawer will not be able to open and close smoothly, if the position of the guide cannot be adjusted slightly, to accommodate such variations.
This invention thus aims to alleviate some or all of the problems of the prior art, and to provide a drawer assembly having a stabilizer arrangement that is convenient to use while providing smooth and stable drawer sliding movement.